Just right - it doesn't have to be

The first thing my inner teacher taught me about writing was that if I wanted to be a writer I had to write. In the early stages I found this very difficult. Like every blank canvas is a potential masterpiece, every blank sheet of paper, or new blank document on my word processor, has the potential to be brilliant … until that first mark. 

Inner doubts lurk in our minds. Tiny voices whisper:

What if I am not good enough?

What if I have nothing to say? 

The thing is, when it comes to writing, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you write.

After writing comes refinement. After writing that first draft you can think about your choice of vocabulary, your sentence constructions, the narrative voice you use, the characters, the world they inhabit and all those other important things.

But if you don’t write, if you wait until everything is perfect before you make a mark, you will never start. 

So ignore the voices in your head, and write. Resist the temptation to read another book on writing (if you’re like me you have shelves of these). Ignore the housework, or the gardening. It doesn’t matter what you write; it doesn’t matter how good, bad or indifferent it is. Once you’ve got it down you can come back to it and improve it, or throw it out. The important thing is that to be a writer, you have to write.

The dictionary is your friend

Or if it isn’t, it should be.

Why do you read and write? The power of our language is that it can take us anywhere. It can create emotions, show us places we’ve never seen, allow us into the minds of strangers –real or fictional. It allows us to communicate with each other with varying degrees of sophistication and effectiveness. And along with all this, language is fun.

I love dictionaries. The English language is incredibly rich. It includes hundreds of thousands of words (how many exactly is a difficult question, but there are definitely a lot).

This means that there is a word for just about everything. And for many things there are words and words and words. 

It is a gift to have the opportunity to explore this rich vocabulary and learn new words. There are times when I read deliberately to learn new words, but sometimes I don’t want to face the risk of not finding words I don’t know. I want a guarantee that something new is going to seep into my brain.

This is when it’s time to get lost. You know that wonderful feeling when you’re in an unknown city or town and you just wander to see what you can see. That’s what I like to do with words. I like to get lost inside my trusty hardcopy dictionaries, or delve into one online, or range around the dictionary on my Kindle. I can spend hours lost in a dictionary of synonyms.

The words you use and the way you use them is what makes your writing unique. The way you as a writer put words into the mouths of your characters is what differentiates them and gives them life. They are an essential tool of your trade. Put aside some time to get lost – I’m sure you won’t regret it.

And if you find any really great words you think others will love, please leave them in a comment …

Musings about Style

Yesterday a potential client rejected my services because they ‘preferred another style’. As a professional writer I take pride in meeting my clients’ requirements. I write about what they want me to write, and I write it in the style that they want. And I can do this. On my blog you’ll probably see the ‘chatty, informal me’, but there’s a ‘business me’, an ‘academic me’, and many more varieties of me. 

This is just one of the frustrations of trying to make it as a freelance writer. But frustrations aside, I cherish the opportunity to spend my days doing something that I love. I delight in being able to rationalise all the time I spend reading about writing. I call it ‘professional development’.

On the issue of style, one of the most useful and practical books I have found is Joe Glaser’s Understanding Style: Practical Ways to Improve Your Writing. My favourite chapter at the moment is about “Finding Fresh Words”. 

I’ve been writing a large number of descriptions of holiday villas. Keeping them fresh was a challenge. It’s unlikely that someone will sit and read them all and think, “There’s that phrase again” or, “Didn’t I read those words about another villa I looked at”. But for me the task was not only to create interesting and informative descriptions for people planning to rent a villa. I wanted to enjoy writing them. I wanted to learn something from writing them. I wanted to discover how to create an image that had the potential to alter a reader’s way of looking at something familiar. I mean, that’s what I love about writing. 

When I tackle a new topic, I find it useful to start with finding out who will be reading what I’ve written, and what they usually read. I look at how others writing about the same subject write. What vocabulary do they use? I read what’s already been written and determine what I like, and don’t like, what’s effective and what isn’t. 

To tackle the villa descriptions I immersed myself in travel writing – good and bad. I added words and expressions to a list. Some I changed, some I kept the same. Then I found words and images I could use in a place where I hadn’t gone to look for them. I found them in fiction, in the novels that I was reading when I needed a break from writing.

Hope this has been useful. Do you have any tips on changing style, or hints for writing about new topics?

My Freelance Journey begins

A few months back I decided to try spending my time doing the things I enjoy. Corporate life had lost its shine. The allure of a regular pay cheque had worn off - at least for a while. Reading and writing are two of the things I enjoy most in this life. There don't seem to be too many ways to make money from reading, so I thought I would give writing a shot. Now I'm a freelance writer. This has not been an easy journey. And it may be a disaster - although I hope not. Meanwhile, along the way I've learned things and I'm learning new things every day - about writing, about style, about organising myself, about myself. Hope you enjoy reading my musings, and maybe find some useful gems amongst my words.

Feel free to visit now and then. I'll be talking about resources and techniques I've found useful, or maybe expressing my frustrations. I'd love to hear your ideas, comments, hints, tips or just about anything else (read: 'I don't want spam!')

It's all about sharing.

Until next time ...